Wales Millennium Centre
When I first heard a new play called Single White Female – based on the 1992 Bridget Fonda film of the same name – was heading to Wales Millennium Centre, my first question was: what stage?
The answer is the Donald Gordon Theatre, a space built to house vast musicals on a par with the West End, but this is a far more intimate affair: a compact cast of five, who only share the stage en masse for the final curtain call. Chief among them is Hear’Say-turned-Corrie star Kym Marsh, who leads the line as the flat-hunting Hedy, alongside Lisa Faulkner as Allie, the titular unattached Caucasian woman.
Under Gordon Greenberg’s direction, the set more than fills the space, giving us Allie’s open plan flat with living room, kitchen and a series of doors leading to unseen bedrooms. It’s not lavish, but it’s not supposed to be; this is a cheap and cheerful fixer-upper for a single mother who needs a lodger to help make ends meet, and where all of the drama takes place.
One of the central challenges with staging Single White Female is that the twist – which I won’t mention here, on the slim chance it might still count as a spoiler – is glaringly obvious from the offset, not to mention widely known by anyone who has seen Barbet Schroeder’s film or read John Lutz’s novel. Rebecca Reid’s adaptation leans into a drip-drip escalation of tension, which is effective if a little drawn out, as we spend much of the first half waiting for the inevitable to happen.
After the interval – itself presumably designed to unsettle the audience and put them in the frame of mind of the play’s antagonist, with the dulcet tones of Slipknot blaring out as punters queue for their ice creams – it rips off the band aid and gives us the confrontation that has been brewing. This is a 15+ production, but not a jump-scare horror; instead, we get physical confrontation, not to mention the inventive use of a high-heeled shoe, as the play spirals towards its fateful finale.
Notable changes from the original include the shift in setting, from an American neo-Gothic high-rise to a rundown British flat with dodgy windows and even dodgier electrics. Central to the story is the intrusion of mobile phones and specifically social media into almost every aspect of modern life, and this is where Reid’s update is most effective, particularly in the subplot involving Allie’s troubled teenage daughter Bella, excellently played by Amy Snudden.
In fact, performances are solid throughout. Marsh brings charm and control to Hedy in a Jekyll-and-Hyde performance very much of two halves, while Faulkner emotionally grounds the play as Allie. Rounding off the cast are Andro as her friend and business partner Graham, and Jonny McGarrity as the ex-husband Sam.
Morgan Large’s design, Jason Taylor’s lighting and Max Pappenheim’s sound are all crucial to the atmosphere, with neon lighting and snippets of mood-setting music combining to create a pressure-cooker environment.
Overall, Single White Female is a fast-moving, well-paced thriller that holds the attention, raises a few laughs and updates its source material with some smart additions. It doesn’t reinvent the genre, and those familiar with the story may find themselves impatient for the second half to arrive, but it does exactly what it sets out to do – a tense, claustrophobic and enjoyable night of theatre.
Wales Millennium Centre until January 31
